Trump speech viewed by 46.8 million viewers

February 6, 2019

President Donald Trump delivers his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, as Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., watch, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address was seen by 46.8 million television viewers, an increase over his 2018 speech.

The Nielsen company said the speech, which was delayed by the government shutdown, topped last year’s audience of 45.6 million. His first such address before Congress in 2017 was seen by 47.7 million.

The Trump-friendly Fox News Channel dominated the coverage, with 11.1 million people watching the speech on that network. NBC was second with 7.1 million, CBS had 6.7 million, ABC had 5.9 million, MSNBC had 3.8 million and CNN had 3.4 million.

Nearly 4 million Fox viewers didn’t stick around for Stacey Abrams’ Democratic response, but the network’s audience was still larger than all others.